Dark Places
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: When Arthur finds out Ariadne may have murdered a man and gotten away with it, he must go into her dreams to find out the truth. But if it's true, will he give her over to the police? Or help hide her crime?
1. Chapter 1

**When Arthur finds out Ariadne may have murdered a man and gotten away with it, he must go into her dreams to find out the truth. But if it's true, will he give her over to the police? Or help hide her crime?**

**~ Dark Places ~ **

_~ Seattle, Washington. Five Years Ago ~ _

~ Ariadne was shaking as Elizabeth rowed the little boat into the dark, foggy lake.

"How far should we row out?" Rachel said in a grumpy, indifferent tone. "You know how I feel about the water."

"What are you? A cat?" Elizabeth asked as she was starting to sweat from the work of rowing. "And how come I'm the one doing all the rowing here?"

"You know how I feel about manual labor." Rachel said quickly as she leaned on the side of the boat. Indifferent to the body that was resting at her feet.

"I think I might throw up." Ariadne said and started shaking harder.

"Well, do it in the water." Rachel said dryly.

"Maybe we should have just called the police." Ariadne whispered.

"It's too late for that." Elizabeth said.

"Hell yeah, it's too late for that. He's dead and we have to get rid of any evidence he was in the house and get rid of his car to. I mean honestly." Rachel huffed. "What kind of ass hole drives a a truck like that? It's like, five feet off the ground and covered in chrome."

She looked at the body wrapped in black trash bags.

"Sorry about your penis, bro." she added and kicked it. Her foot meeting up with the lump of meat and bones.

She looked at Ariadne as if expecting praise. Her roommate only looked sicker.

Ariadne was amazed her friends were so detached from this whole ordeal. They had changed so abruptly when when the horrible thing had happened. They had stayed clam and rational. Rachel coming up with a plan and Elizabeth coolly putting it into action.

"This is a good spot. The water looks deep enough. We must be a good mile out." Elizabeth said.

"We all have to do this; together" Rachel said as she shut off her flash light and the tiny row boat was bathed in darkness. Only the moon saw their sin now.

"We?" Ariadne croaked. "I don't want to touch him."

"Ariadne, we're all apart of this. Now grab his feet and lets shove his fat ass over." Rachel told her.

Ariadne whimpered a little as she had to touch the body. He was wrapped in trash bags and chains. His body weighed down further with a cinder block.

"What if he floats back up?" Ariadne asked.

"He's chained down." Rachel said casually.

"What if the tide pulls him out of the chains and he floats?" Ariadne asked.

"Dead bodies don't float." Rachel said confidently.

"Dead bodies float!" Elizabeth almost shouted.

"No they don't!" Rachel shouted as the three of them lifted and rolled the cold, heavy body off the row boat and the chains and cinder block plummeted it down into the inky blackness of the lake. The boat bobbing higher in the water now as it was freed of the extra weight.

Ariadne watched him go, watched him sink and wished her fears would sink with him.

"Alright, fine!" Rachel shouted. "When we get home we'll google it and find out if dead bodied float or sink."

"We're not googeling shit! They would look for that!" Elizabeth said and started rowing back. "We're going to take this asshole's car to the bad part of the city, leave it on a crack head street corner and then drive home in your crappy ass Honda back home."

"Stop calling my Honda crappy!" Rachel snapped.

"Then, we're cleaning up the kitchen, and going to bed. In the morning I'm going back to New York and you are going to do whatever the hell it is you do. We're never going to talk about this again and we're going to get on with our lives." Elizabeth finished.

Rachel rolled her eyes.

"That is a good idea." she said as if bored. "Ariadne." she turned to the petite girl cowering in the boat.

Ariadne looked up at her two roommates.

"You can never say anything about what happened to Johnny Marks." Rachel said sternly. "We've all committed murder. We have to just pretend it never happened. The semester is over, and everyone is going their separate ways. Johnny was living with some friends anyway and his parents won't miss him for a while."

Ariadne nodded and felt like she was going to be sick again.

"Now, if anyone asks," Rachel went on. "We were at home tonight. Just like most nights. We never saw Johnny at all. Just keep the story simple. Don't go into detail and don't volunteer anyone any information."

Ariadne wondered how Rachel became so smart and calculating. She was a party girl at heart who, thanks to a large trust fund, never had many real problems.

"You watch too much Law and Order." Elizabeth grumbled.

"_And_ all the CSIs!" Rachel corrected. "Except the Miami one. Yuck! If that asshole takes his sunglasses off one more time I might have to kill something."

"Not funny just now, Ray." Elizabeth said dryly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lizzie." Rachel said smartly "Is it too soon to start making dead body jokes? Can we at least sing 'Goodbye Earl'?"

"We can sing 'Goodbye Earl'." Elizabeth said with a shrug.

"No, we can't." Rachel barked. "You know how I feel about the Dixie Chicks!"

_~ Paris, France. Present Day ~_

~ "His name is Johnny Marks." The young detective said and showed Arthur, Cobb and Eames a yearbook photo of a typical jock in a high school Letterman's jacket. He had a cocky smile on his arrogant face. He was the kind of young man that was in every high school in the country. A big fish in a small pond, until the real world started and he was no longer a star.

"What about him?" Cobb asked.

"He was a freshman at a university in Seattle. There on a football scholarship, and flunking out. One night, five years ago, he vanished." the detective said. "He was last seen drinking at a local bar, and talking to his friends about one of the girls who rented a house on Evelyn street."

"I'm sorry, detective-" Arthur asked.

"Harpool." the young detective with the startling blue eyes and military haircut said.

"What does this have to do with us?" Arthur asked.

"You're associate, Ariadne Wills was the girl in question. It seemed he was angry with her over something that happened that week." Detective Harpool said.

"And?" Arthur asked.

"And, Johnny Marks was never heard from or seen again after that night. What was left of his truck was found in a chop shop a few weeks later." The detective said.

"I'm not following." Arthur said coolly as Eames gave him a worried look.

"I think your associate, Ariadne, knows what happened to Johnny Marks." Harpool said. "She was interviewed twice before, and so were here old roommates. "But, that was before."

"Before what?" Arthur growled as Cobb scowled over a black and white picture of a lake.

"There was a drought this year. Caused the water level in the lake to drop. Johnny Marks body was found three days ago. Positively identified by his high school ring and letter jacket. His arms and legs were bound. We haven't found the cause of death yet." The detective said.

"Again, what proof do you have Ariadne was involved?" Cobb asked.

The detective looked at the three men.

"At the bar that night, he said he was going to go to their home. There are witnesses saying they saw his truck at the girls house around the time he left the bar." the detective said.

"You think Ariadne killed a man? A burly athlete in his prime no less?" Eames laughed. "Have you _seen_ her?"

"98 pounds soaking wet." Cobb agreed.

"I'm sorry, but we've worked with her for years now. She has no criminal record, and has shown no violent tendencies." Arthur said calmly.

"We believe she didn't act alone." Harpool said.

"So, you came all the way to Paris to investigate this old murder?" Cobb said. "If you had any real evidence she did it, you would have arrested her by now."

"I would like to talk to her again. Five years is a long time. She might be willing to tell me the truth this time. I think she knows what happened and I want to give her the chance to explain." Harpool said and sat a little straighter.

"You mean give her the chance to incriminate herself." Arthur corrected darkly.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

_~ Five Years Ago ~ _

~ Rachel and Elizabeth were quick to dispose of the tacky truck in a seedy part of the city. Johnny Marks never got over his high school glory days. The proof was his graduation tassel still hanging onto the rear-view mirror as Lizzie left the engine running and hurried beck to the Honda.

Ariadne sat crouched, rabbit like, in the back.

'_This can't be real_.' she thought as Rachel drove slowly back to their side of town.

"Ariadne?" Rachel asked. A hint of kindness in her voice. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"Yes." Ariadne said and tried to breath.

~ That night, until dawn, the girls cleaned. Rachel and Ariadne were on their knees cleaning the kitchen floor with bleach. Every trace of blood was gone and Lizzie made sure there was no evidence of footprints in the muddy walkway to the house, or tire prints from his truck.

"The garden hose took care of it." Elizabeth sighed as she walked into the clean kitchen with her muddy shoes.

"Lizzy! I just cleaned that!" Rachel shouted and glared at her roommate.

"It's fine, Ray!" Elisabeth said bitterly. "We can't have it be too clean! It smells too much like bleach anyway."

"This is so typical of you." Rachel grumbled as Ariadne poured a bucket pink water down the sink; washing away the rest of the blood.

The kitchen looked clean, but she couldn't stand to be in this room anymore. The memory was too close. Too real and raw.

"Typical of _me_?" Elizabeth said. "Why do you say that?"

"I try and do something and you sabotage me." Rachel said.

"I do not."

"Do to." Rachel insisted.

"Guys, please." Ariadne whispered.

She had sunk to the floor and was breathing hard.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked.

"We... we just killed a man." Ariadne said.

"No we didn't." Rachel said sharply. "We don't know what happened to Johnny, remember?"

"That's right." Elizabeth added. "The last time you saw him was a few days ago, you don't know exactly, when he accused you of scratching his truck."

Ariadne nodded.

"Say it!" Rachel insisted.

"I'm not sure what's going on with Johnny." Ariadne said coldly. "I saw him a few days ago. He said I hit his truck, or something like that. I don't know which truck is his. I haven't seen him since then." she finished.

"Right." Rachel said. "Remember, keep it simple."

"It was self defense." Ariadne whispered.

"No it wasn't, Ariadne." Elizabeth said and the two girls looked at the future architect sitting on the floor.

She felt tears swim in her eyes as she looked up at her friends. Elizabeth shook her head as Ariadne started to cry.

_~ Present Day ~_

~ Arthur walked Ariadne back to her apartment that evening.

"How was class?" he asked as his hand caught hers and they kept the same stride.

She grinned at him as they passed a bakery and he bought her the pastry she loved.

"Good, I think I might take another art class when this is done." she said.

"I thought you weren't going to be a professional student." he teased as she munched on the glazed donut.

"I'm not a professional student." Ariadne smiles sweetly.

"We were planning a trip to Greece this spring." he told her. "I was thinking we would bump it up a few months, go a little early."

"Why?" she asked curiously as she licked the cake frosting off her fingers.

Arthur was filled with a sudden urge to kiss her.

"Ariadne, is there anything you need me to know?" he asked instead. The Point Man always winning out in the end.

"About what?" she asked.

"Things from you past?" he asked. "Things you never told me before."

She laughed.

"Volumes. But what specifically?" she asked.

"Ariadne," he sighed and pulled her to a secluded part of the market.

She looked at him with her large brown eyes and he was again reminded that a girl like her could never do what the detective was accusing.

"A detective Harpool came to see us today. He was asking a lot of questions about you. Back when you went to college in Seattle." he said.

Ariadne looked thunder struck.

"What did you tell him?" she demanded.

"What did we tell him?" Arthur repeated. The correct response from her, if she were innocent, was: What kind of questions? Arthur felt his image of Ariadne become tainted a little.

"Apparently the body of a man was found in a lake. The police identified him as Johnny Marks." Arthur said and watched her face carefully.

Ariadne pulled away from him slightly.

"I went to school with him. We were Freshmen at the local university before I moved to Paris." she explained in careful, even tones that sounded rehearsed.

"How well did you know him?" Arthur asked when she fell silent and wouldn't tell him anything more.

"I didn't." she said with a shrug. "We ran in different crowds. I didn't know much about him till he disappeared."

"He was murdered, Ariadne." Arthur said. "His arms and legs bound with a zip tie and he was dumped in the lake."

Ariadne nodded and didn't look at him.

"Is that what happened?" she asked. Her voice indifferent.

"Why is this detective coming all the way from Seattle to talk to you about Johnny Marks?" Arthur asked.

She sighed.

"Because Johnny had apparently made threats about me to his buddies one night. Or, so I'm told." Ariadne sighed and wrapped her coat around her body tighter. "I don't know what about. I don't know why, really. I understand he was a loose cannon and he had been drinking."

She walked away from him and he followed.

"After he disappeared, the cops asked me and my roommates about it. We hadn't seen him in days anyway. We didn't know what was going on." she said mildly.

"They questioned you twice, Ariadne." Arthur told her as he kept pace with her quick movements.

"Arthur, do you think I honestly had anything to do with this?" she asked and turned her bewitching eyes on him.

He was caught in her spell.

"No." he breathed. His heart wanting to believe, but his head telling him she was lying.

"You want me to tell you that I don't know what happened to some guy I hardly knew five years ago?" she demanded. "I'll tell you what I've told the police. I hardly knew him, it's sad what happened to him, sure, but I had nothing to do with it." she said and walked away.

Arthur watched her go before he went after her.

'_She's lying._' he thought.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

_~ Five Years Ago ~_

~ "I'm sorry, what's your name again?" Rachel asked the handsome blond haired blue eyed detective. He had shown up at their door a week after that night at the lake, and Rachel had already started to lay on the charm. It wasn't hard for her. She was a tall, leggy blond who radiated a charmed life. Born and raised in Orange County, she seemed like a bright ray of sunlight in the dreary world she was forced to inhabit. Her light hair, tanned skin, amazing body and confidence, always brought men to her.

"Christian Harpool." he said and uncomfortably shifted away from the predatory like gaze she gave him.

"I see." Rachel purred and moved closer.

"Ma'am." Harpool said and stepped away again. "I need to speak to your roommates, Elizabeth Shepard and Ari-" he scowled at his notebook.

"Ariadne." Rachel said and gave him her to kill for smile. "Like the Greek myth."

"Where are they?" Harpool asked.

"Oh, Lizzy is at work. She'll be home in a few hours." Rachel said with a shrug. "Ariadne went to the store, but she'll be back soon."

"Were you and your roommates here on Thursday?" Harpool asked.

"This Thursday? Yes." she said in a worried tone of someone who isn't in on the joke.

"Do you know Johnny Marks?" Harpool asked.

"I know lots of people." Rachel said with a cat like smile as she looked Harpool over.

"I need to know about Johnny Marks, ma'am." Harpool said sternly.

Rachel took a step back.

"What's going on? This isn't a joke is it?" she asked as Ariadne came through the back door carrying shopping bags.

"No, Ma'am, it's not." Harpool said as Ariadne came into the living room

"What's going on?" she asked casting her dark eyes at the detective.

"I don't know. He says he's a police detective." Rachel whispered.

"Are you Ariadne?" Harpool asked.

"Yes."

"How well do you know Johnny Marks?" the detective asked.

"Is this about the complaint I registered against him last month?" she turned to Rachel. "When was it?"

"It was after he yelled at you in the commons." Rachel said helpfully. "I hope you are going to arrest him. Guys like that makes girls afraid to go to school."

"You can go and ask that guy, he threatened me in front of witnesses and everything." Ariadne said.

"Campus security is a joke, I'm glad the real law is going to do something about him." Rachel added and rested a hand on Harpool's chest.

"I would love to ask him about that altercation last month, ma'am." Harpool said and brushed Rachel's hand off. "But Johnny Marks hasn't been seen in over a week now. The last time he _was_ seen, he said he was going to your house."

"Here? Why me?" Rachel asked even though Harpool was looking at Ariadne.

"Not you." Harpool said.

"Me?" Ariadne gasped.

_~ Present ~_

~ Ariadne was cutting vegetables in her tiny little kitchen.

"That detective will want to come and talk to you in the morning." Arthur said as he put an old fashioned record on to play. The choppy, yet smooth harmony of jazz music undulated through her apartment and she smiled at him.

"I can't believe you bought me a record player." she said and added the veggies to the pasta she was cooking.

"Ariadne, this is serious. He came all the way from America to see you." he said.

"Oh, that." Ariadne shrugged. "Johnny Marks is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the area. I always thought he had some kind of accident while drinking."

"The police don't think that." Arthur said.

"The police just want someone to blame." Ariadne told him casually. "I went through all of this five years ago. Harpool drug me and my roommates in for questioning, even got a search warrant and went through our house."

She shook her head and laughed.

"It's the main reason I transferred; I hated the gossip. No one thought we did it. In fact, people weren't sure he didn't just run off." she said.

"He didn't run off. He was at the bottom of a lake. Someone put him there. Someone tied him up and dumped his body in a lake." Arthur said.

She suddenly let out a long breath and glared at Arthur. The large kitchen knife grasped tightly in her hand picked up the light and flashed menacingly.

He had never seen that cold, manipulative face on her before. She was still beautiful; but in a frightening way. A way that said, 'don't get too close, don't trust me.'

"Ask me." she said in a angry tone he wasn't used to hearing from her.

"Ask you what?" he said as he shifted away.

The knife in her hand looked suddenly very dangerous. It was a joke to think Ariadne could actually hurt him. She was small and untrained, and even armed with a knife, he could defend himself. But just now, with that cold look in her eyes, and the weapon in her hand, he felt a little afraid.

"Ask me if I did it. It's what you want to know." she hissed. "Stop beating around the bush."

"If you did it, if it was some kind of self defense-" Arthur stammered and she threw the knife down on the table. It mad a loud clack against the wood and he was relived she put her weapon down.

"How long have we been together, Arthur?" she demanded as she set the table for dinner.

"Over a year." he said.

"In all that time, even in dreams, do you think I could do such a thing?" she asked. "You honestly think I could kill someone and dump his body into a lake? You really believe I'm physically capable of doing that to a 19 year old football player?"

"See, that's the thing." he scoffed. "You haven't said you didn't do it."

She turned and glared at him.

"I see your mind is made up." she told him hatefully. "If I cry and pleaded my innocence, you still wouldn't believe me. You would prefer to listen to gossip."

"Ariadne." he breathed and put his hands in his pockets.

"You know what?" she said sharply. "I'm not hungry anymore. I think we should call it a night."

"What?"

"I don't want to fight, and if you stay, we're just going to fight." she said and put her plates back in the cabinets. Hurriedly canceling their intimate dinner plans.

"Ariadne."

"You've already tried and convicted me." she said and he could tell she was about to cry. "There is nothing more to say."

She stood away from him, showing him the door.

"Ariadne, I'm here for you. But you need to tell me the truth. If Johnny Marks had hurt you in some way-" he said.

"Good night." she said and refused to look at him.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

_ ~ Five Years Ago ~_

~ Harpool let out a sigh and looked at Ariadne. She felt fear prick her skin as she kept her face calm.

"Ariadne, you need to tell me what happened." he said.

His voice was nice and soothing. His attention was focused on her and nothing else. His face said without words: '_Tell me what happened, I'll believe you. I know it wasn't your fault, just tell me what happened and I'll make sure you'll be okay._' He was handsome and kind. He must have found it easy for a poor girl to tell him everything he wanted to know.

She blinked and tried to imagine Rachel and Elizabeth were in the room with her.

'_You don't know what he's talking about._' Rachel whispered in her mind.

"I'm sorry." Ariadne said meekly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Okay." Harpool said. "We have a warrant to search your home."

"I know." Ariadne sighed. "I had just come home to find the police going through my room."

She felt her face flush hot with embarrassment.

"Something wrong?" Harpool asked.

"Yes, something's wrong!" she snapped at him. "You people are going through my things! It's an invasion of privacy!"

"We are looking for evidence of a crime."

"In my _underwear_ drawer?" she said bitingly.

"Johnny Marks-"

"Is probably passed out on some friend's couch or something. Why are you harassing us?" Ariadne accused.

"He was last seen driving to your house. He made threats against you in a bar just hours before. Now, you need to tell me if he came to see you, Ariadne. If he tried to hurt you or your roommates that night. Did you do anything to him? Was it self defense?" he asked.

"I keep telling you." she hissed darkly. "We were home all night and no one stopped by."

"Your roommates say otherwise." Harpool said.

"Oh they do?" Ariadne laughed and rolled her eyes.

"They are telling us you killed him."

"Okay." Ariadne said with a laugh.

"Yes, and you're the one who will go to prison. Now tell me your side of the story."

"No." Ariadne said.

"What?"

"If they said I killed a man, why haven't you arrested me?" she asked.

Harpool and Ariadne stared at one another for a long time. Each one challenging the other to speak first.

Ariadne counted to ten in her head and looked at the handsome detective as if she pitted him.

"Your whole case is what, exactly?" she laughed again. "Some guy making idle threats while drunk in a bar. Then he drives off in the _direction_ of my house; ten miles away from the stupid bar. He could have gone anywhere."

Detective Harpool said nothing. He waited for her to go on. Waited for her to explain herself into a jail cell. She kept quite for another ten count as they dueled with their eyes.

"I know you need someone to blame." she sighed.

"I don't need a scape goat." he told her calmly. "But we found his truck today in the bad part of town. Stripped to it's frame."

She looked at him curiously and said nothing.

"Witness said they saw his truck at your house." Harpool said.

She didn't count to ten then.

"No they didn't. Because he wasn't there." she said curtly. "Now, if something terrible has happened to him, don't you think you should be looking for real clues. Not chasing false leads and drunken witness statements. If you have enough to arrest me, you know where I'll be."

She stood up and left Harpool's office.

~ That night, the girls didn't talk about Johnny or what happened to him.

"Can't believe those animals went through my things like that." Elizabeth said sadly. "They just threw my shit on the floor."

"I think they found my vibrator." Rachel said as she drank another glass of red wine.

Ariadne tried not to laugh, but Rachel's sense of humor always delighted her.

"It's okay." Rachel went on as he hung her long legs off the arm of her chair. "I hope they think of it as a challenge."

"Ray." Elizabeth sighed.

"Yeah, you're right." Rachel agreed. "Men have feelings to. Or so I'm told."

"Did they want to see your hands?" Ariadne asked.

"My hands, my arms." Elizabeth said. "Even took pictures."

"Why?" Ariadne asked.

"They think we killed that guy."

"We don't know what going on. Watch. Johnny will turn up in a few days." Rachel said in a drunken, lazy voice.

_~ Present Day ~_

~ "We meet again." Harpool said and showed Ariadne to a seat. The detective had been granted a 'turf' so to speak at the constable's office. A place he could use to intimidate the Architect with.

"How are you liking Paris?" Ariadne asked casually as she looked at the detective.

Harpool was still handsome and kind. Still had women falling all over themselves to confess their crimes. The one exception had been Ariadne and her roommates.

"Fine." he said. "I'm sorry about what happened to Elizabeth and Rachel."

Ariadne sat back. She wasn't ready for that.

"Elizabeth had breast cancer. It's rare in someone so young, and she died pretty soon after the diagnosis. They didn't catch it in time. Rachel was drinking and driving and had a car accident after she died." Ariadne shrugged.

"Elizabeth and Rachel were close. Best of friends. She stood by her through her cancer and everything." he added.

"They were close." Ariadne said simply

"It must be sad. Knowing you're the only one left now." Harpool said leaning over the desk.

"We don't get out of life alive." Ariadne told him. "But yes, it is sad." she agreed.

"I suppose your new friends explained to you why I came here." he said.

"I'm curious about why you chose to speak to them first and not me." Ariadne said smartly.

"We can talk about that later." Harpool said.

"You mean after you tell me you have proof I killed a 200lb athlete in his prime and dumped the body?" Ariadne laughed.

"After I tell you how your friends helped you kill him and helped you dump the body." Harpool said steadily.

"How did I do it?" she asked with an amused smile. "What was the cause of death?"

"You tell me." Harpool said.

"I've told you what happened, Christian." she said using his first name. Taking part of his power away as she did it. "My roommates and I were home alone. We never had a visitor that night. You've interviewed me three times now. My roommates, when they were alive, told you the same story."

"I used to play football." Harpool said. "In High School. I went to a school that was really big on sports and they treated the players like we were above everything else. I guess I was lucky, my Dad kept my strait. Kept me from getting into trouble."

Ariadne shifted but didn't break his gaze.

"A few bad apples can ruin a bunch." he sighed and pulled out newspaper articles.

Ariadne recognized them right away.

"A few parties where some girl gets too drunk and the players take advantage. It makes the whole sport look bad." he sighed. "I know how scary it must be for those girls. Getting raped, then too afraid to report it because they fear retaliation from the town, their friends. Girl gets called a liar or a slut by her own family if she speaks out. Even if it wasn't her fault. She might as well move out of town." he sighed.

Ariadne looked at the familiar newspaper articles from Seattle.

"Suicide of a high school senior three months before Mr. Marks vanished." he said "She reported she was raped, but there was not enough evidence to charge Marks. His buddies closed ranks and protected him. Said he was with them and it didn't happen. The girl was slut shamed for being at the party to start with."

Ariadne looked away.

"Another girl was beaten and raped, not by Marks but by her boyfriend. Another football payer. When she reported it, she was called a liar and harassed so badly, she left town." he went on. "You know as well as I do there are dozens of cases like this." he said and looked at Ariadne. "That's what those boys do. They protect each other. They lie, to cover their secrets. Just like you and your friends lied about what happened that night."

"What do you think happened that night?" Ariadne asked.

"I think Marks came to your home. Maybe he threatened you. Maybe he tried to hurt you. You defended yourself." Harpool said.

"You saw me a few days later. I didn't have a cut or bruise on me." she shrugged.

Harpool looked angry.

"I know you had something to do with his murder. You need to tell me what happened. I'm sure you're tired of living with this." he said.

"Nice try." Ariadne smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

_~ Present Day ~_

~ Arthur hoped that his attempts to cook dinner for Ariadne might smooth things over between the two of them. They had never fought before and it felt odd to have her angry with him. He didn't know what to do when she was mad and not speaking with him. Normally, his instincts were to give her space and let time make her forget why she was angry. But he couldn't do that now.

She had long ago given him a key to her apartment in case of emergencies, but he had never used it before to come into her home announced. He had decided to show up at her apartment, before she came home, and cook her dinner.

He was also unsure about his cooking skills. He was the kind of man who had food made for him and only knew enough about cooking from watching Rachel Ray. He liked her show the best because, like all men, he secretly wanted a pretty girl with a curvy body cooking him comforting foods.

He found her cooking lessons about pasta and Mariana sauce coming back to him and was proud of the pleasing smells coming out of Ariadne's tiny kitchen.

"We've been busy." Ariadne's voice drifted to him from the front door. She looked tired and him a shy smile.

"I'm sorry." he said and put down the olive oil.

"For breaking into my apartment, or accusing me of murder?" she asked as she looked over the meal he was preparing.

"Both." Arthur said sheepishly. "But mainly the accusing you of murder thing."

"Well, you'll be happy to know Christian Harpool is going back to the states tomorrow. He couldn't get me to confess to the crime in a hail of tears like he wanted." Ariadne sighed as she moved away from him and started to set the table.

"So he doesn't think you did it? That's good." Arthur said hopefully.

"Oh no, he thinks I did it." Ariadne smiled as she pulled free a half empty bottle of white wine from her fridge. "No, he always thought I did it." she sighed.

"But he didn't arrest you." Arthur questioned.

"It seems they can't find a cause of death." she told him. "Johnny meet with foul play, that's for sure. But, they can't find any evidence it was me other than drunken witnesses saying he was mad at me and sketchy evidence."

Arthur nodded.

"He's just trying to rattle me." she said at last as Arthur poured the ravioli through a colander.

"Well, it's over now. If he comes back, we'll just get you a lawyer." he said as she nibbled on the sauce.

"This looks really good." she said. Her face a smile again.

"I don't want to fight anymore." he sighed. "I know you didn't do this; what he accused you of."

"Thank you." she whispered and kissed him.

~ An hour later, Ariadne was sleeping at the dinner table as Arthur worked up the courage to do what he had to.

He had drugged her using the intensive sedative he used when on dream extractions. He had slipped her the drug in her water as smoothly as if he was on a job. She hadn't noticed his hand linger over her glass as she put a record on. Now the last song had played and the old record player was making the _whoosh... whoosh_ sound as it spun on the turn table. The apartment feeling empty and expectant somehow.

He stood and removed the silver brief case from under the table. With easy movements, her wrist was exposed and hooked up to the device. Before sending himself into dreams with her, he hesitated. Knowing that whatever he saw there, could not be unseen.

"I'm sorry." he whispered before kissing her sleeping lips.

~ He opened his eyes to the obvious student decorated house. Trendy, cheap furniture. Retro posters on the wall, and a total disregard for house keeping.

Arthur was thankful that Ariadne had learned to clean up after herself and had developed more style in decorating in the past five years.

He heard talking in another room. Three women in whispered voiced.

"Stop it, Ariadne." one women hissed and he saw his Architect, younger, thinner and frightened looking.

"We have to call the police!" Ariadne sobbed and she ran her hands through her dark, unkempt hair. She was the Ariadne of five years ago. A young woman barely out of high school. She was dressed in a worn T-shirt from a rock concert, retro print skirt and Doc Martian boots. She was hardly recognizable to him as the woman she would become.

"And tell them what?" a talk beautiful blond girl almost shouted. "That the star of the football team broke into our house? That he-"

"We defend ourselves." another woman said calmly interrupting the other girl. She as tall and very lean. Her dark hair hung in waves down her back and was the only thing feminine about her. Arthur pictured her as the type to lead some kind of political movement.

"Ariadne used her stun gun on him and we tied him up with zip ties!" the blond hissed. "Who do you think the cops will blame?"

She shook her head as Ariadne started to sob again.

"I had to!" Ariadne said pitifully.

"No one will believe us." the blond said.

"Ray." the tall girl with the dark hair said. "He tried to rape me. If Ariadne hadn't come home when she did and used her stun gun..."

The tall girl with the dark hair shook her head and Arthur realized her long hair was down for a reason. Her T-shirt was torn and she looked like she had been crying.

"We can just call the police. He was the one who committed a crime here." Ariadne told the two girls.

"Yeah right!" the blond girl said.

"Why can't we?" Ariadne asked.

"You remember Julie Williams? She accused one of the players of raping her last semester. Next thing she knows everyone in school is against her. Calling her a liar and she's getting death threats. The police didn't protect her. Then there was that other girl who was rapped. The guy said she was his girlfriend and had been drinking and should have known better. Police won't protect us." The blond said in near hysterics.

"They'll make it look like I asked for it." the dark haired girl said.

"We didn't ask for this!" Ariadne said. "Look, he's not dead or anything. Let's call the police and tell the truth."

"I don't have any bruises on me, he just held me down and tried to pull my pant's down before you zapped him. All he has to do is say _you_ assaulted _him_." the dark haired girl said bitterly.

"Elizabeth!" Ariadne cried.

"We could kill him." the blond said coldly.

The other girls looked at her and Arthur sucked in his breath.

"Look, all this asshole has left to offer anyone is rape, spousal abuse, child abuse, and drunk driving arrests. Football season is over and he's flunking out. If we let him go, he's going to tell people how we assaulted him. He'll make up anything he want." the blond went on.

"Rachel." the dark haired girl said. "You can't be serious."

"I'm very serious. He could even have us arrested. You want that?" the blond girl.

"We're not killing anyone." the dark haired girl sighed. "I'm not sure what we're going to do... but we're not killing him."

"He's still out, right?" Ariadne said and looked worriedly at the kitchen.

Arthur saw a pair of expensive sneakers attached to a pair of jeans. The infamous Johnny Marks was still laying on the floor of the kitchen.

"In the morning, he'll wake up-" the dark haired girl started to say.

"Yeah and send his buddies over here to rape us then." Rachel shouted.

"Ray, he's going to be too embarrassed that a bunch of girls did this to him." Elizabeth snapped.

"Elizabeth?" Ariadne whispered.

"Lizzy, you don't know how these guys are. You've known you were a lesbian all you're life. You don't know what men like that are capable of." the blond girl cried.

"Ray." the girl with the dark hair stood and held her in her arms. Letting her obvious lover cry. "I promise, he won't come back." she whispered.

"We have to get rid of him!" the blond cried as they kissed. "I don't want him to hurt you or us."

"GUYS!" Ariadne shouted and the lovers were pulled away from each other to see Ariadne.

The future Architect looked frightened.

"I think he's having a seizure!" she cried.

~ Arthur stood back as the girl frantically tried to think of what to do. The young man had his hands and arms tied behind him as he started to cough up blood and his head started to hit itself against the floor of the kitchen.

"What do we do?" Ariadne screamed as Arthur heard the death rattle come from Johnny Marks' throat.

"He's dead." the girl with the dark haired said gravely.

"Good." the blond said bitterly as they stared at the dead man on their floor.

"What do we do?" Ariadne whispered and the three of them moved away form him. "We have to call the police. I mean, we didn't kill him."

"Who's to say we didn't?" the dark haired girl said. "The stun gun, tying him up. That could have caused the seizure."

"No," Ariadne stammered and looked scared. "He was going to rape you!"

"He deserved it." the blond said as her lover held her close. "He deserved it."

"We'll take his body out to the lake." the dark haired girl said at last. "Ariadne, you go get the snow chains and the cinder block from the shed. Rachel and I will wrap the body up."

"What?" Ariadne gasped.

"None of us are going to prison for Johnny Marks!" the dark haired girl hissed.

~ Arthur was helpless to watch as Ariadne went to the back yard to get a cinder block and chains. By the time she came back, the other girls were wrapping the body up.

"Good riddance." the blond said as the taped the trash bags closed.

"Stop it." the dark haired girl snapped. "We all have to get him in the bed of his truck and drive him out there."

"I don't want to touch him." Ariadne said and backed away.

"Ariadne, you're the one who tasered him." the dark haired girl told her.

"We're all in this together." the blond agreed.

"First smart thing you've said all night." the dark haired girl said.

"No, the first smart thing I said all night was saying you need to take me out to the movies instead of staying home. Now look what happened." the blond said.

~ Arthur watched as they drove out to the foggy lake, dumped the body and later, the tacky truck. He watched them clean the kitchen, and be interrogated by the local police and Harpool. He had to admire the way they all kept cool. He realized that Elizabeth and Rachel had shared dangerous secrets before.

And the future Architect was no stranger a world of deception.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

_~ Present Day ~_

~ Ariadne awoke safely in her own bed a few hours later. She even had a light blanket thoughtfully placed over her so she wouldn't get cold.

She had no memory of how she had arrived in her bed from her dinner with Arthur, and knew that she had been drugged and most likely carried here.

That familiar after affect, that meant she had been taken into dreams, left her feeling more alert as she peered around her bedroom that was shrouded in darkness.

"I'm sorry." came a deep voice from her bedside.

A man was sitting in a chair at her vanity table. His head hung low in the darkened bedroom.

"What did you do?" she whispered as she took her time sitting up. "We were eating dinner... what happened?"

"Ariadne, I had to know." he sighed and flicked on a decorative lamp by her vanity.

The sudden appearance of warm, reassuring light in the room made her feel more at ease, it was only Arthur in the darkness after all. She knew he loved her, he would protect her.

"I had to know the truth." he said and looked at her.

She was breathing hard and felt her pulse snap angrily with fear.

"What _truth_?" she whispered as her heart raced. A sense of reckoning had finally approached.

"The truth about what happened that night. I had to know." he said.

"What?" she asked in a frightened whisper.

"I know what happened. I saw him have the seizure." he said and stood. "I know he tried to hurt your roommates and would have hurt you, if you hadn't stopped him."

"We were scared. It wasn't our fault, he died so quickly and I didn't want to go to prison." she said and looked up at him with imploring eyes.

Arthur didn't look at her as she sat up in bed and wrapped her light blanket over her shoulders.

"What are you going to do?" she asked. "Are you going to turn me in?"

He shook his head.

"I don't think we should tell Harpool." Arthur said.

"They would put me on trial for murder. I doubt they could ever prove it was only a seizure. I helped dump his body in a lake... I..." she looked ready to cry.

"It's alright. I promise, it will be okay." Arthur said. "Harpool has no proof you did this. It's been five years now and they most likely won't be able to find the cause of death. If he didn't have any evidence to arrest you before, he won't ever have any unless you confess."

She nodded and tears ran down her cheek.

His warm hands were on her face then, brushing the tears off.

"I'm sorry I had to go into you dreams." he whispered as he started to kiss her. A heartfelt apology for his invasion.

"I've had to live with this for so long." she whispered. "I'm glad someone else knows."

"Your roommates, they were... a couple?" he asked.

"No one knew. I came home and saw Johnny Marks there. He was making them kiss, and making the do things. Elizabeth was crying. He was touching himself and didn't even see me come in the room. I saw what was happening, and I had my taser with me." she sobbed suddenly. "I didn't even think, I just pulled the trigger and Elizabeth and Rachel tied him up. Then..."

She feel quite.

"We just wanted it to have never happened. If we had accused him, gone to the police... everyone would know about them. There might have been retaliation from his friends for ruining _his_ life. It would be in the papers. The police wouldn't have helped us either. They would have taken his side." she whispered.

"Ariadne..."

"No, Arthur!" she said more aggressively. "Imagine someone made you do things. Sexual things while they watched. Imagine some asshole violated you in your own home. Would you expose your private life to the world? Would you want everyone to know about it?"

She looked at him with a flash of anger he had come to love about her.

"Let's not talk about this ever again. You didn't kill him, and I understand why you kept it secret. Johnny Marks is dead, and your old roommates are gone to." he sighed.

"I'm sorry I never told you." she sobbed. "It's just... I never think about him anymore. I believed the story we always told people. If you tell the same story over and over again, you start to believe it."

Arthur nodded and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" she asked weakly.

"I can't, I have..." he sighed as she looked hurt.

He shook his head.

"I need some time to think about this." Arthur said at last.

"Please don't hate me... for all this. It was so long ago, and..." she swallowed hard. "I'm sorry I'm not the girl you thought I was."

He was kissing her again.

"You've always been the girl I wanted." he whispered.

~ Arthur was watching the curvy Rachel Ray cook for him on TV. She was preparing some kind of pizza as Cobb helped himself to the fridge.

Arthur and Ariadne had parted for the night after he had invaded her dreams. Cobb coming over when he sensed Arthur was not satisfied by all he had found in her subconscious.

"So that's good, right? She didn't do it." the Extractor sighed as he sank down in a chair next to the Point Man.

"Yeah." Arthur grumbled as he watched the cooking show. "It's odd though." he added.

"What's odd?"

"I did research on Johnny Marks. No history of seizures." Arthur sighed.

Cobb was quite.

"Ariadne's projections didn't attack me or even notice me. It was all laid out for me in the dream. It was like a play, she wanted me to see it. It was too... convenient." the Point Man said with an angry scowl on his face.

Cobb looked troubled.

"No one can control dreams better than Ariadne." the Extractor agreed. "I've never seen anyone better at than she is."

"I don't believe she killed him." Arthur said. "I don't believe she's a murder."

"But the dream she gave you, it wasn't the truth." Cobb sighed.

"Far from it." Arthur said bitterly. "Her subcontinents would have defended that secret with everything it had. What she showed me, it wasn't what happened."


	7. Chapter 7

7.

_~ Present Day ~_

~ Ariadne was surprised to see Arthur at her door a few hours later.

"I thought you needed some time to think." she said curtly. Still hurt that he had so readily abandoned her after invading her dreams.

"I did all my thinking." he said simply. "May I come in?"

She shrugged and moved aside. The Point Man advancing into her small living room.

"I know what you showed me was a lie." Arthur said as he refused to look at her.

Ariadne felt her heart quicken.

"You went into my dreams, invaded my private thoughts and you still don't believe me?" she accused.

"You just_ gave _me that dream, didn't you?" he accused.

She felt her fingers curl into a fist and her anger rise.

"You knew what I was going to do and you created a dream that could rationally explain your way out of killing a man. Marks had no prior history of seizures, Ariadne." Arthur said.

"First time for everything." she said carelessly.

"Tell me the truth."

"Why? Will it make you feel better to know the truth? Will it make you sleep better to know I stabbed him to death because he rapped me? That I was home alone and he drug me to the floor. That he forced me to give him a blow job, or that he sodomized me? That I stabbed him to death because of it and my roommates helped me clean up the mess?" she snapped hotly.

Arthur turned away from her. He didn't want to think about that happening to Ariadne.

"Why do you have to know the truth, Arthur? It's over. It's personal and my business." she said. "All the people who mattered are gone now and you don't need to know."

"It was _murder_, Ariadne." he said harshly and looked at her in the eye for the first time that evening.

"You listen to me, Arthur." she said in a warning tone. "Johnny Marks didn't rape me, and I didn't kill him."

She took a deep breath for courage.

"But deserves to be at the bottom of that lake, he deserved all of it." she finished.

"I don't know if I can believe you." Arthur said.

"It's not for you to believe or not. We're done talking. You can stay with me if you want to, or you can go. But we will never talk about this again." she said.

Arthur took a step away from her. Her eyes suddenly dangerous.

"I told Cobb I knew you didn't do it." he whispered. "Now I'm not so sure. If he had hurt you, and you defended yourself, that's one thing. But you act like you killed him in cold blood."

He shook his head as he prepared to leave.

"I think I should go now." he said as he tried not to look at the sudden hurt in her eyes.

"Good night, Arthur." she whispered.

_~ Five Years Ago ~_

~ Ariadne was alone in her kitchen. It was a quite night of doing laundry and watching TV? She didn't realize there was trouble until it was too late. The shock of some strange man appearing in her kitchen was so overpowering, she wasn't even able to scream.

"You fucking cunt!" the burly athlete shouted at her as he grabbed her by the hair and jerked her like a rag doll.

Ariadne whimpered as he pulled her by the hair so hard, he could have broken her neck.

Irrationally, she thought he was joking. That this couldn't be real as she tried to get away. She was always taught girls don't fight. Her upbringing said it was rude and horrible to hit someone, even if they hit you first and your life depended on it.

"That was a $40,000 truck, you bitch!" the strange man in her kitchen shouted as he tossed her to the floor and she tried to crawl away.

"Stop it!" she cried pitifully as he blocked her escape with his large body. She was small and weak, he was tall and very strong. She could smell the overpowering stench of alcohol on him as he picked her up by her hair and forced her to stand.

"NO!" she cried and tried to hit him. Immediately regretting the action as he grabbed her fingers and squeezed them so hard she was worried he might break them.

"Don't!" she cried out as he dropped her back to the floor as if she didn't feel pain. He treated her as if she were nothing at all.

"You bitches are all the same!" he spat at her as she instinctively huddled in a corner.

"Please, don't." she cried helplessly as snot leaked from her nose and she couldn't stop crying.

He was smiling. The son of a bitch was actually smiling.

"It's going to cost me a lot of money to fix the scratch on my truck you put on it." he sneered. "How are we gonna pay for that?"

"Just... just leave me alone." she panted as he was moving his hand over her thin legs.

"Don't!" she cried as his large ape like hands found her breast and he fondled her.

"Pull your dress down." he ordered.

"No." she said weakly.

He grabbed her by the hair again and his horrid breath was in her face.

"Pull your top down, slut." he ordered.

She was crying as he shoved her head against the wall and crouched over her. His big body preventing her from escaping.

"Please!" she cried.

"Let me see 'em." he snarled.

She was crying and hiccuping as she undid the ties of her simple dress and let it slip off her shoulders.

"Bra to. Take it off." he ordered.

She didn't look at him. She looked away as she peeled off her bra and felt the air hit her bare skin.

"That's it." he told her as his ape hands touched her exposed breasts and pinched her nipple. An act more suited to a pre-pubescent boy and not a grown man.

She tried to cover her chest at the rude fondling when he glared at her harshly.

"Touch yourself." he ordered.

She shook her head and fought off a need to vomit.

"Do it. Touch them." he commanded.

She did as he told her. She was afraid he would hurt her again if she didn't.

"Please." she said as she clumsily ran a hand over her own breast.

"That's it." he laughed and she heard a strange smacking sound.

She chanced a look at him and realized he had pulled a feeble, skinny penis out of his jeans. His manhood, was tiny by any measurement, and compared to the rest of him, looked like a joke. His large body was out of proportion compared to the white worm like thing he was trying to pump into a suitable size.

If she had not been so terrified he might kill her, she would have laughed at it.

As it was, she knew he was going to try and rape her and she felt sick.

"Come here." he ordered and grabbed her by the hair.

"NO!" she screamed as he forced her face into his crotch. "NO!"

The smell of him there was sickening. Like a foulness she knew would make her throw up.

"Suck it!" he ordered and tried to make her take him in her mouth.

She tried to move her face away, tried to claw at him and struggle.

"Bitch!" he shouted as he tired to maneuver his hips and his pathetic manhood into her face again.

Suddenly, she heard a sickening crack, like an egg hitting the floor and breaking. His body went limp, letting her go.

Ariadne scurried away as he groaned and fell to the floor. Blood coming out of the back of his head as he felt around for the injury.

Elizabeth was standing over him with a hammer in her hand. Her breathing coming hard as Ariadne started to cry.

~ "Tie him up!" Rachel ordered curtly as Johnny Marks groaned and fell on the floor.

"We have to call an ambulance!" Ariadne said once she was properly covered up again. "He's still alive!"

Johnny groaned as the girls stood over him. The blow to the head stunning him enough for them to tie him up. Elizabeth binding his arms and legs together with a zip tie. Her two roommates showing remarkable calm.

"Tell them what?" Elizabeth snarled.

"He was going to rape me!" Ariadne cried as she had the foresight to grab one of Elizabeth's old concert T-shirts from the dryer and put it on.

"And Lizzy hit in on the head with a hammer." Rachel snapped hotly. "We're in more trouble for that than this ass hole trying to get you to play with his little dicky!"

She gave Johnny a hard kick and he groaned.

"There's so much blood!" Ariadne sobbed as she wished this had never happened. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't she just go back to being normal again? Why did he have to do this to her? Now she was the one in trouble.

"We go to the police, we're the one's that will be arrested." Elizabeth said sternly.

"Please!" Johnny choked as he reached out to Ariadne for help. "Please, help me!"

"He's dying!" Ariadne shouted as their victim groaned, helpless, on the floor.

Elizabeth eyed the man who had tried to hurt her roommate.

"He's going to go to the police." Rachel panted. "_If_ he lives."

"We have to kill him." Elizabeth said calmly.

Ariadne only watched as Elizabeth straddled his dying body, and pressed her hands on his throat, her lean, strong frame bearing down all it's weight on killing him.

Rachel held down his arms as he struggled against the strangulation. It took a log time for the two girls to choked the life out of him. Ariadne always thought dying was quick, but it seemed to take forever for him to finally give up and become still. He gave one last gasp for air before his skin became pale and his eyes dilated.

"What do we do with him?" Rachel breathed as it was over.

"We dump him in the fucking lake. No one will find him there." Elizabeth panted and pulled out black trash bags from under the kitchen sink.

Ariadne felt faint as she watched her roommates wrapped the body up and carry him to his own truck. The three girls were protected under the forgiving cover of night and fog as they drove out of their neighborhood and to the lake. Casting his body, and the hammer into the dark waters.

Into dark places she would teach herself to forget.

**~ END ~**

**I hope you enjoyed this story. I know I could have made a lot more out of it, but I guess I didn't want to. Shame on me, I know. I did base the whole murder and body dump on the series "Bates Motel". Awesome series. **

** I also took a lot of what's happening in the news lately about girls getting raped by football players and the law reluctant to do anything about it. It's a fear that they will be shamed or not believed that causes them commit suicide or just leave town. I'm glad that there is more media attention to this issue. It's always the girls fault if she gets raped and never the boys. I thought a little justice was in order. **

** That, and I made his dick really small.**

** I'm currently working on "The Bitter Fruit" a sequel to "The Convenient Wife/ An Inconvenient Husband" series. **

** Olivia is a well cared for young lady living in New York with her widower father, Arthur. When a chance encounter from her mother's past sheds new light on who she really is, she goes to England to find the sister she never knew and the mysterious writer, C.R. Eames. **

**Nataile Portman as Olivia**

**Keira Knightly as Felicity**

**Matt Bomber as Harold**


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